Grizzly Bear - Sleeping Ute

Don’t count on the process not repeating itself, but with Grizzly Bear’s last album, 2009’s ‘Veckatimest’, its build-up coincided with the digital age going into overdrive. Leaks were more prominent than they are now - the album itself suffered from a low-quality version being exposed months ahead of release - and demand was intense, at a Post-‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ extremity, where the indie crowd expected their darlings to come good with masterpieces.

The dust seems to have settled a little - Grizzly Bear will always make great records, but they’re never going to cave into external pressures. You can draw parallels between this online delirium, followed by a brief state of calm, and the Brooklyn-based band’s latest song itself. Guitars interchange at breakneck speed during ‘Sleeping Ute”s opening half and chances of earning a second or two to catch your breath seem slim. That is, until, the hurrah of these thick, triumphant guitar sections begins to dissipate, with a stunning blend of organic and electric sewing up the song’s gorgeous closing section. It all moves into ‘Yellow House’ tranquility, which of course is the album that first gave the band their alternative royalty status.

There’s a blend of the old, diamond-like structures crashing into view; the kind that so defined ‘Veckatimest’, alongside the sparsely arranged finger plucking delight of older albums’ finer moments. This, it goes without saying, is a glorious sign of things to come.